Dealing with Dead Data

“I have just arrived home from an extraordinary week in China with people I met through my business school. It was a week of connection, food, wine, expansive thinking, and reflecting on our practices. 

As soon as I landed in China, I immediately noticed the surveillance. Moving through the airport on arrival in Shanghai, I could see clusters of 15+ cameras together, in multiple parts of the airport. I have no idea how many cameras would have been on us at any one time, but I have no doubt that every angle was captured. While this is very much 'business as usual' in this part of the world, it got me thinking about just HOW much data these cameras generate, where it is stored, how it is used, and how much 'dead data' exists. 

Dead data is that which is not relevant or useful anymore. It is the data that is collected over time, which may or may not have been useful in the first place, but does not get used, or does not serve us anymore. 

Think about some of the largest data breaches in Australia - Medibank and Optus had issues not only with leaks of data from current customers, but also past customers too. This is because they didn't deal with their dead data - they stored it and didn't destroy it, even though it wasn't relevant or useful to them anymore. Their issues were much bigger than they might have been, if they didn't have as much 'dead data' in their worlds. 

Holding onto dead data isn't good for our workplaces, our employees, clients or our communities. Not only is it risky if there happens to be a breach, it also makes finding and using the most useful data more difficult - as there is more data to wade through and make sense of.”
Article by Dr Selena Fisk, Data Storyteller, see her website here.